In pioneer times streches of swampy ground were made somewhat passable by laying logs across them in a pattern that reminded people of corduroy. Scadding tells how in walking up Yonge Street in those times [between Davisville and Eglinton] “A tract of rough country was now reached, difficult to clear and difficult to traverse with a vehicle. Here a genuine corduroy causeway was encountered, a long series of small saw-logs laid side by side over which wheels jolted deliberately. In the wet season portions of it, being afloat, would undulate under the weight of a passing load; and occasionally a horse's leg would be entrapped, and possibly snapped short by the sudden yielding or revolution of one of the cylinders below.” Miles Historical Atlas of York, 1878, p XI, states: “"A tract of rough country was now reached, difficult to clear and difficult to traverse with a vehicle. Here a genuine corduroy road was encountered over which wheels jolted deliberately. In the wet season portions of it, being afloat, would undulate under the weight of a passing load".